American Hostage in Yemen Has Been Released, Trump Says

WASHINGTON — An American citizen who was abducted nearly 18 months ago in the Yemeni city of Sana was freed last week and has been reunited with his family, President Trump announced on Monday.

Danny Lavone Burch, an engineer at a Yemeni oil company, has been “recovered and reunited with his wife and children,” Mr. Trump tweeted aboard Air Force One as he flew toward Vietnam, where he is to meet this week with Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader.

“I appreciate the support of the United Arab Emirates in bringing Danny home,” the president wrote. “Danny’s recovery reflects the best of what the United States & its partners can accomplish.”

Mr. Trump did not specify how Mr. Burch, who is married to a Yemeni woman, was freed. It also was not clear who had abducted Mr. Burch, although former American officials said he was not being held by Al Qaeda.

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Mr. Burch is an engineer at a Yemeni oil company and is married to a Yemeni woman.CreditNadia Forsa

Working closely with American forces, the United Arab Emirates has stationed ground troops in Yemen to fight Houthi rebels in the country’s ongoing civil war. American officials have previously told The New York Times that freeing Mr. Burch likely would have required a raid; a State Department spokesman on Monday said the United Arab Emirates was “crucial” to securing his release.

Two American officials discussed the details of the case on Monday on condition of anonymity.

Mr. Burch, who had been working for oil companies in Yemen for years, was 63 when he was forced from his car by unidentified gunmen in September 2017. At the time, Nadia Forsa, Mr. Burch’s wife, said in a phone interview that “they did it in broad daylight in front of everyone.”

Kidnappings of Americans and other Westerners are common in Yemen, a poor country that has been devastated by years of civil unrest. Houthi rebels and affiliates of Al Qaeda often attempt to ransom hostages for money or accuse them of being spies.

At the time of Mr. Burch’s abduction, no group claimed responsibility.

Mr. Burch began working on oil rigs in Yemen in the mid-1990s. He traveled between the United States and Yemen before moving there permanently, according to Stephen Burch, his son from his first marriage, in an interview shortly after he was taken in 2017.

Stephen Burch said then that his father had divorced his first wife and had virtually no contact with him or his other children from the first marriage.

In his tweets on Monday, Mr. Trump said recovering American hostages “is a priority of my Admin, and with Danny’s release, we have now secured freedom for 20 American captives since my election victory.”